31 Halloween Options for Halloween Which is October 31 (10/31)

Listen. We know! Halloween is on a Wednesday. When in the world are we supposed to celebrate? Good news is the odd timing lets us take advantage and party with the spirits for two weekends instead of one. Here are 31 of our picks for the up coming spooky weeks.

Now through November 4th. As a pre-game to our upcoming True Crime Festival, we’ve teamed up with Drink Company to host a pop-up bar. The cocktail menu is inspired by our all time favorite murders (you know what we mean, we’re not pro-murder), including drinks like The Pearfect Crime and Mass Maple Hysteria. And don’t forget to grab your tickets to their Halloween party (all of which will be donated to the DKMS, an organization who fights blood cancer). Blood, gore, and booze? We can’t think of a better way to get in the spooky spirit.

Events through November 4. Oyamel is celebrating Day of the Dead this week with a few of our favorite events. It kicked off Monday, October 22 with an all inclusive event featuring face painting and live music, followed on Tuesday, October 30 with a five-course meal paired with five unique cocktails and on Thursday, November 1 they host 3-Stars Brewing Company for a tasting of their new seasonal brews.

Weekends through October 28th. If you’re looking to get your heart racing this October, the place for you is Six Flags America. After the sun goes down you can ride roller coasters and encounter the monsters in your nightmares. You can be the judge of which is more frightening.

Now through the month of October. McClellan’s Retreat is serving up an entire menu of Beetlejuice inspired cocktails this month. Pop open the aptly named Handbook for the Recently Deceased (aka, the cocktail menu) and you’ll see a small, but well curated list of drinks that speak to surprising variety of cocktail tastes (and are all $13 because we’ve all decided numbers are scary).

Thursday, October 25th. Australia’s dark prince graces the stage of The Anthem just 6 days before All Hallows’ Eve. This is not a Halloween show per se but every Bad Seeds show is full of death, despair and longing so we’re including it in this roundup.

Friday, October 25th. Don’t miss your chance to see Michelle Buteau and Jordan Carlos this weekend in DC as they talk about the monster under everyone’s bed – #ADULTING. With special guests Tig Notaro, Sheng Wang, and Amanda Seales this Bentzen Ball show is sure to make you feel better about the struggles of being an adult just trying to figure it out.

Thursday, October 25th. WIHS hosts their annual Barn Night Jumping Competition. Riders and their horses dress up in ridiculous costume and traverse the obstacle course at Capital One Arena. Spectators have the chance to enter contests and win prizes, while laughing at the their favorite riders in silly attire.

Friday, October 26. The Library of Congress is screening the 1958 film Frankenstein 1970. The film set 70 years after the original creation of our favorite Halloween mascot, has the potential to be the best sequel you’ve ever seen – and it serves a cool excuse to spend time in the world’s largest library.

Friday, October 26. TheCovenDC – known for their monthly dance parties, embraces the spirit of Halloween this weekend. Put on your best costume and dance along to the musical talents of DJ Tezrah. This event if free, and typically one of the best parties DC has to offer for Halloweekend. Before the party begins, downstairs at Ten Tigers four local DC queer authors are doing a “creeeeepy reading’. Accompanied by a zombie photo booth and tarot card readings. Hit this reading as a warm-up to the party upstairs hosted by TheCovenDC.

Friday, October 26. Into partying in museums? If not – you should be. The Newseum is putting on an extravagant Halloween bash. Wolfgang Puck bites, Curator-led gallery talks, open bar serving candy (and cocktails!). The best deal for this costume party is that you can buy a new membership and get a free admission!

Friday, October 26. During the day the Smithsonian’s National Zoo is a magical place of wild animals, learning, and a giant hill that I have tackled on numerous occasions. Somehow. At night the zoo can get pretty spooky, spoopy if you will. And nothing is creepier than Halloween. So what happens when you combine the two? You get Night of the Living Zoo! This could be you on October 26! That’s a lie. You won’t get to handle snakes.

Saturday, October 27. You can find DC Drag Brunch at the Dirty Martini on any Saturday. But, THIS Saturday is their Halloween celebration. Mimosas and costumes with drag queens is as a good a start as any for your Halloweekend.

Saturday, October 27. Arguably a better Halloween tradition than trick-or-treating or pumpkin carving, is watching Rocky Horror Picture Show. The Landmark E Street Theatre is hosting screenings all Halloweekend with shadowcasting by the SONIC TRANSDUCERS. There is no better way to celebrate the holiday then this one of a kind interactive theatre experience.

Saturday, October 27. On display at the Mexican Cultural Institue is the altar called “They Silence Us”. Created by Mexican artist based in DC, Irene Clouthier. It is dedicated to women who have died as victims of violence. This is one of the MCI’s most popular events and includes traditional Mexican dance performances.

Saturday, October 27. This Halloween party and costume contest at City Tap is worth checking out. It’s only $35 for their party package that includes drinks and bites from their gastropub menu. Be sure to bring your costume A-game to win a prize!

Saturday, October 27. Dirty Habit is holding their Night Circus in their huge outdoor courtyard. Complete with fire dancers and house made absinthe cotton candy. If American Horror Story: Freak Show was your favorite season – this party is for you.

Saturday, October 27. Want to do all the cute fall things? Add this to your bucket list. DC Fray is hosting a Bonfire at Butler’s Orchard where you can roast weenies and marshmallows. They will also be serving all you can drink beer and wine. Snuggle up by the fire with your friends in your best Halloween costumes. More cozy, less creepy.

Saturday, October 27. The rooftop bar at The Watergate Hotel serves some of the best views of DC and the Potomac. For their costume party this Halloweekend, if you show up in costume they give you complimentary glass of champagne. Even if you don’t have the best costume you get a prize, everyone’s a winner!

Sunday, October 28. End your Halloweekend celebrations on a high note with a happy hour at Black Jack from 12pm to 6pm. Also, all weekend they will be hosting an instagram costume contest for a chance to win giftcards. Tag @blackjackbardc Friday to Sunday to enter! Winner announced on Halloween.

Tuesday, October 30. We’ve been covering the annual 17th Street High Heel Race for the past ten years. It is one of the most fabulous events in the city each year. For over 30 years, men have been donning wigs, outlandish costumes, and their highest heels to race down 17th Street, NW from R Street to Church Street. What began as a promotion between two bars has grown into an event that draws thousands.

Tuesday, October 30. Crystal City Sport Pub is giving you the chance to live out all of your yoga dreams. Vinyasa flow and costumes? Hip-hop? Cocktails? All of the above, please! Head to Arlington to get your corpse pose on, seriously.

Tuesday, October 30. The Perfect Liars Club is putting on their Halloween Spooktacular at Union Stage. Seven of the East Coast’s best storytellers will share their ghost encounter tales, followed by a Q&A with a paranormal investigator. Listen to their stories and let them spook you into the Halloween spirit.

Wednesday, October 31 through Sunday, November 4. The millennial friendly art fair is coming to DC. Not only will they be showcasing art made by 50% DMV based artists, but they will host events to educate young and aspiring collectors. Attend the fair and one of their discussions – use the code BYTICECREAMANDART at superfinedc.eventbrite.com for 30% off tickets.

Wednesday, October 31. Rounding out their more than two week long spooky season celebration, Estadio is putting on their 3rd Annual Spooktacular Bash. Tickets are a festive $31 for tapas and treats with a cash bar serving Pumpkin Slushitos and other themed cocktails. Don’t forget your costume for a chance to win gift cards or wine!

Wednesday, October 31. A party where you can bring your pet in costume, and see other pets in costumes! The ideal Halloween celebration, honestly. To compliment their Stephen King themed bar that is running this month. Truxton Inn is hosting a Halloween costume contest for pets in their outdoor courtyard. A percentage of the sales will be donated to City Dogs Rescue & City Kitties.

Wednesday, October 31. If Harry Potter and Hogwarts is your jam, this pick is for you. Union Stage is hosting a Halloween event for muggles who wish they were wizards. This dance party features Quidditch Pong, magic themed cocktails, and a chance to win cash prizes in their costume contest!

Wednesday, October 31. The Politics & Prose bookstore is hosting a talk with Podcaster Joseph Fink. His novel is based on his popular podcast which follows the diaries of a truck driver across America in search of her dead wife. The talk will be moderated by Petra Mayer of NPR Books.

Wednesday, October 31. Get those miles in, wearing a costume! Head on an easy group run from Fleet Feet DC. Run from the monsters and goblins wandering the streets this Halloween. Best to wear bright colors as it will be dark outside.

Wednesday, October 31. The Upside Down! Demogorgons! Eggo waffles! The Lucky Bar DC is hosting a Stranger Things trivia night if you’re in the mood for a more laid back Halloween night. Binge-watching is a good way to get in the scary spirit and study up for this event.

Friday, November 2. Spend Dia de los Muertos at the Kimpton Mason & Rook rooftop bar! Grab dinner and drinks after work and celebrate the dead. Get your face-painted by a professional sugar skull artist and sip on tequila and mezcal cocktails in the spirit of the Mexican holiday.

Saturday, November 3. Continuing their “Classics in Action” series, We Happy Few is putting on Dracula this Halloween season. Follow them through their vampire hunt, as they put on a thrilling, immersive, and silly production. If Dracula isn’t your cup of tea – they also put on performances of Frankenstein and A Midnight Dreary.

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“Ratmansky’s extraordinary musical sense... wins out.”—Russia’s Kommersantwith the Kennedy Center Opera House OrchestraRomeo and Juliet“Bolshoi” means “big” in Russian—and the world-renowned company more than lives up to

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“Bolshoi” means “big” in Russian—and the world-renowned company more than lives up to its name with its latest production of Romeo and Juliet choreographed by former Artistic Director Alexei Ratmansky, one of today’s hottest, most visionary, and most in-demand dance-makers. The Bolshoi Ballet is celebrated for its daringly athletic and highly theatrical style of ballet. It’s been nearly six years since the mighty company last performed for us, and this time the Bolshoi’s incomparable stars immerse themselves in Shakespeare’s enduring tragedy of star-crossed love.

Danced to Prokofiev’s richly cinematic score, Ratmansky’s version shines with the characteristic style that audiences have come to adore from him: quick steps, vigorous lifts, and surprising dashes of humor. Leveraging the Bolshoi dancers’ dynamic range, his staging feels at once both epic and human, a sweeping spectacle that more deeply and poetically explores the young couple’s burning attraction to each other amidst the suffocating circumstances of family feuding in 14th-century Verona. When the Bolshoi tours in 2020, Washington is the only U.S. city lucky enough to host Romeo and Juliet. Don’t miss this remarkable opportunity!

Violent Femmes 10th studio album, HOTEL LAST RESORT, resides among the groundbreaking band’s finest work, simultaneously refining and redefining their one-of-a-kind take on American music, mingling front porch folk, post punk, spiritual jazz, country blues, avant garde minimalism and golden age rock ‘n’ roll into something still altogether their own. Founded and fronted of course by singer/guitarist Gordon Gano and acoustic bass guitarist Brian Ritchie, the Milwaukee-born combo remains as warm, wise and weird as ever before, with such new favorites as “Another Chorus” and “Everlasting You” continuing to mine the vast range of ideas, melodic complexity and organic sonic craftsmanship that has characterized the band’s body of work since their landmark self-titled 1983 debut.

Formed in 1977, X quickly established themselves as one of the best bands in the first wave of LA’s flourishing punk scene; becoming legendary leaders of a punk generation. Featuring vocalist Exene Cervenka, vocalist/bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom, and drummer DJ Bonebrake, their debut 45 was released on the seminal Dangerhouse label in 1978, followed by seven studio albums released from 1980-1993. Over the years, the band has released several critically acclaimed albums, topped the musical charts with regularity and performed their iconic hits on top television shows such as Letterman and American Bandstand. X’s first two studio albums, Los Angeles and Wild Gift are ranked by Rolling Stone among the top 500 greatest albums of all time. The band continues to tour with the original line-up fully intact. In 2017, the band celebrated their 40th yearanniversary in music with a Grammy Museum exhibit opening, a Proclamation from the City of Los Angeles and being honored at a Los Angeles Dodgers game where Exene threw out the first pitch and John Doe sang the National Anthem. In 2020, X celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Los Angeles.

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Today NYC-via-Seoul electronic producer, DJ, and vocalist Yaeji has announced the release of a new mixtape titled WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던, due out April 2 on XL Recordings. To

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Today NYC-via-Seoul electronic producer, DJ, and vocalist Yaeji has announced the release of a new mixtape titled WHAT WE DREW 우리가 그려왔던, due out April 2 on XL Recordings. To introduce the new project, her first full-length mixtape and release on XL, Yaeji has shared a new animated music video for the lead single “WAKING UP DOWN.” It’s also been announced that this Summer Yaeji will perform live across North America and Europe in which she’ll debut an all-new live show featuring dancers, original choreography and new stage production.

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slowthai knew the title of his album long before he wrote a single bar of it. He knew he wanted the record to speak candidly about his upbringing on the

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slowthai knew the title of his album long before he wrote a single bar of it. He knew he wanted the record to speak candidly about his upbringing on the council estates of Northampton, and for it to advocate for community in a country increasingly mired in fear and insularity. Three years since the phrase first appeared in his breakout track ‘Jiggle’, Tyron Frampton presents his incendiary debut ‘Nothing Great About Britain’.

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Ed O’Brien never planned to make a solo record. As guitarist with Radiohead, who over almost three decades and nine albums have established themselves as one of the most innovative

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Ed O’Brien never planned to make a solo record. As guitarist with Radiohead, who over almost three decades and nine albums have established themselves as one of the most innovative and influential musical forces of our time, he thought his artistic side had its outlet and was happy to spend any downtime from Radiohead with his family. Plus, he wondered, would it really be necessary? “Thom, Jonny and Phillip are making music,” he says, “and I’m like, ‘The last thing the world needs is a shit album by me.’”

But suddenly a switch was flicked and the songs came pouring out of him. That creative surge resulted in an album of rediscovery and adventure by O’Brien under the moniker EOB that deftly veers from moments of delicate folk to euphoric house, its songs seamlessly pinned together by unswerving melodic hooks and candid lyricism.

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Join LabX and the Cultural Programs at The National Academy of Sciences as they collaborate with the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center to host a hands-on activity day for families with

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Join LabX and the Cultural Programs at The National Academy of Sciences as they collaborate with the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center to host a hands-on activity day for families with young children, using the ETERNAL sculpture as a platform for engagement. Topics for the ETERNAL Family Day event will range from ocean research and conservation to consumer waste.

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This album was made from January 2015 to December 2019, starting as a collection of vague ideas that eventually turned into songs. I wanted to make something that was different

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This album was made from January 2015 to December 2019, starting as a collection of vague ideas that eventually turned into songs. I wanted to make something that was different from my previous records, and I struggled to figure out how to do that. I realized that because the way I listened to music had changed, I had to change the way I wrote music, as well. I was listening less and less to albums and more and more to individual songs, songs from all over the place, every few days finding a new one that seemed to have a special energy. I thought that if I could make an album full of songs that had a special energy, each one unique and different in its vision, then that would be a good thing.Andrew, Ethan, Seth and I started going into the studio to record songs that had more finished structures and jam on ideas that didn’t. Then I would mess with the recordings until I could see my way to a song. Most of the time on this album was spent shuttling between my house and Andrew’s, who did a lot of the mixing on this. He comes from an EDM school of mixing, so we built up sample-heavy beat-driven songs that could work to both of our strengths.

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Growing up in suburban New Jersey, 23-year-old singer, songwriter and producer Jeremy Zucker has always been surrounded by music. In 2015, he released his first EP as a freshman at

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Growing up in suburban New Jersey, 23-year-old singer, songwriter and producer Jeremy Zucker has always been surrounded by music. In 2015, he released his first EP as a freshman at Colorado College pursuing a degree in Molecular Biology, and by 2017 he had signed a major label record deal with Republic Records. Since then, he has released 4 EP’s with breakthrough singles such as “talk is overrated” featuring blackbear, “all the kids are depressed,” and his biggest song to date, the Gold-Certified hit “comethru”. Overall, Zucker has already crossed over a staggering 1 billion total streams on his catalogue as he gears up for his debut album, coming early 2020.